1887 .] 
Chairman's Address. 
5 
sitting in London to find out wfietlier the applicant is qualified 
by training and experience to prosecute the researches which he 
proposes to undertake h It is plain enough that a committee must 
to a large extent act on its personal knowledge of the applicants, 
and that the unknown applicant for a share of the research fund 
has a tolerable chance of being defeated in that struggle for 
existence which is illustrated by scientific competition. 
It is, therefore, very necessary that the distribution of research 
funds should be in some degree localised. Should any Fellow of 
this Society be disposed to carry on the work initiated by Dr 
Gunning, we can assure him that, as to any superfluous money, the 
possession of which may be useless or injurious to himself, he can- 
not employ it more usefully than by aiding in the establishment of 
a research fund, to be distributed by a committee of the scientific 
body in Scotland. 
We also invite the public of Scotland, and its representatives in 
Parliament, to support the Koyal Society of Edinburgh in its 
claim to have a share of the Government grant allocated to Scot- 
land for researches conducted within the country. 
I have now to allude to a cognate subject, which at the present 
moment possesses a special interest and importance : I refer to the 
Ben Nevis Meteorological Observatory. 
I remember to have seen somewhere an engraving after one of 
the old masters, in which Science is represented as a melancholy 
female form perched upon a hill and surrounded by circles, instru- 
ments of alchemy, and other quaint devices. I think that the 
mediseval artist must have had what we call a forecast of those 
mountain establishments which have sprung up in different parts 
of the world, and among which the Observatory at Ben Nevis is 
the most famed for its admirable situation, and the high character of 
the work which is there performed. Its hourly observations, taken 
without intermission during a period of three years by Mr Omond 
and his assistants, have now been reduced and tabulated. They 
are in print, and will shortly be issued as an extra number of the 
Transactions of this Society. 
It is unnecessary to point out that such a series of observations 
must be of the highest value for general purposes, such as the deter- 
mining the constants of atmospheric pressure and temperature in 
